Str8HipHip

A celebrity's life is a lot like gambling - only all your opponents are aware what your poker hands are. That's how hiphop star Prodigy's life has been the past few months. Like every average joe he's had his share of ups and downs, the only difference is the whole world is there to watch as all the bad things of his life unravel. Read our exclusive interview below to get a closer look (and understanding) of just what has been happening behind the glitz and glamor of Prodigy's well documented life. 

SHH: Let’s get started with the details that lead up to you having to be sent away for 3 ½ years next month.

Prodigy: Basically I caught a case, when the police illegally searched my car. You know, they locked me up, along with Alchemist because he was a passenger in my car. While I was in there they was trying to tell me I can walk and they’ll forget about the gun and throw away the arrest report if I plant evidence in 50’s (Cent) car or help them set 50 Cent up. So that was kind of crazy to me and I’ve really been putting in out there to let people know what these motherfuckers is trying to do. I told 50 as soon as I got bailed out and he was like, “yo good lookin’ for putting it out there and telling people.”  So like that shit is real…

SHH: Did you cop a plea bargain or go to trial? 

Prodigy: Yeah I took it to trial because it was an illegal search and should have been a one-two-three (in and out case), but in front of the grade jury, the cops started lying… Saying that, “they saw me make motions towards the box” and “I didn’t put my hands up when they told me to put my hands up” and a whole bunch of other lies... So I couldn’t even use the illegal search thing because they basically covered they ass with that shit. It forced me to take a plea bargain for 3 ½ years   instead of taking the case all the way and trying to beat it. Because once you have cops lying on the stand with their hand on the bible and the D.A. is down with it and they helping they lies out. You really can’t win and it doesn’t make too much sense to fight that, you know what I’m sayin’? Unless you have some incredible evidence, so I saw it going against me and I took the 3 ½ years…

SHH: So back to the music… You got your second official solo album H.N.I.C. 2 coming out. When does that hit the streets?

Prodigy: Head Nigga In Charge 2 will be out the first Tuesday in March. My last solo album came out in 2000, the first H.N.I.C. . In between all that time we’ve been keeping busy, keeping Mobb Deep in the public eye. Just making new deals with Mobb Deep and staying on tour because Mobb Deep made everything else possible, you know what I mean? So we got to make sure that that shit stays at a certain level and once we go back off of touring and all that I really just starting wrapping up the H.N.I.C. 2 album and decided it was time to get it out there and I just happen to catch the case along the way. H.N.I.C. 2 is definitely crazy.

SHH: Who did you work with on the H.N.I.C. 2 project?

Prodigy: As far as productions I got Havoc, Alchemist, Sid Romes and I got Apex who did “I Get Money” for 50.

SHH: How long did the recording process take?

Prodigy: I started recording like back in 2004, like right before the G-Unit deal and finished it up around the time we got back from the Blood Money tour . I just really starting to wrap things up for it then. I mean  it’s been a few years,  been working on it here and there little by little.

SHH: Tell us about your deal with Voxonic and your role in the company pertaining to releases from you and Mobb Deep?

Prodigy: Yeah Voxonic is a company that own a patent on the technology that can translate anyone of my songs to any language in the world basically… And a friend of mine had found the company doing research on the internet and set up a meeting between me and theM and we sat down and we spoke.  They explained to me their technology and they played a demonstration for me. Something they did with Young MC and one of his songs. What was his hit record? You know the one hit wonder record he had?

SHH: “Bust A Move”

Prodigy: “Bust A Move”  that was the name of it. They played me that in Spanish and it sounded crazy. They played me that and I was like, “that’s ill yo!” You find it kind of hard to believe when you hear them talk about it, but when you hear it for yourself it’s just like incredible. SO when I heard that I said I had to do something with this and my album. So we just came together and they brought me in as a partner in the company and I did my H.N. I. C. 2 deal with them, so it’s all good right now… It’s going to be crazy when the album drop, just to see the fans in other countries be able to understand what we saying. It’s going to be interesting to see how they react to that.

SHH: Tell us about H.N.I.C. the movie. What should we look for what that and who’s in it?

Prodigy: The film is basically something I wrote after my first movie Murda Muzic. I was actually going to start shooting it now and since I caught the case, I had to put it on hold and wait till I get home to wrap it up because it’s not something that should be rushed. While I’m locked up I’m going to work on tightening up the script and when I get home I got a lot of people who’s ready to get down. They read the script and think it’s good and they want to be  a part of it. One of the actors in it is going to be Rick Gonzalez. He’s been in Coach Carter and a bunch of other movies.  My man Hassan, he’s been in The Wire and Belly. So they basically like, “we ready when you are…  just keep us informed and we’re ready to go.“

SHH: The clips you leaked on the internet in anticipation for your album are dope. Word is you shot and edited a lot of the clips yourself. If directing and being more hands on with the film making something you want to do on future projects?

Prodigy: It’s definitely where I want to take it to after this music thing. I definitely want to get into the film thing, whether it be writing scripts, directing, producing  and acting… It’s really nothing new, I’ve been interested in doing it since ’97-’98 when Master P did the Bout It, Bout It thing. When I saw Run DMC Tougher Than Leather and Crush Groove and all that, it sparked my interest into the movie thing. So I decided to try my hand at that and we did a movie called Murda Muzic about Queensbridge and it came out 2001-2002, straight to DVD. I had did the whole thing; wrote the whole script, paid for the whole movie myself, produced it, directed it… It was definitely a learning experience for me because it showed me a lot about how the movie business works.

SHH: The clips you have on YouTube, are any of them going to be in your next movie?

Prodigy: Nah… Some of the clips I leaked on YouTube are courtesy of a company I’m working with called Kyte. They gave me and 50 these phones and we can press a button on the phone and it can go straight to my website hnic2.com or 50’s website thisis50.com. We been taping stuff every day. 50 been taping stuff on tour and I been taping on the streets. I’ve been taping  my day to day, what I’ve been going through with my case, hanging out with me in the studio and just showing people what’s going on with P right now. On New Year, me and my wife went out to a little hotel to celebrate New Years together and you know, I thought I was going in January 9th so we decent to pull out the Kyte phone and tape  what we was doing on New Years and share it with the world. Cause that’s what it’s all about right now, this Kyte thing, so we taped that and put it up on the internet. Everyone went crazy like we made a sex tape or something like that, but it wasn’t even nothing like that. We was just sharing with the world what we was doing on New Years.

SHH: The images of you showing your son how to shoot a riffle, are those a sign of the times we’re living in or are you prepping him for a life on the streets?

Prodigy: Basically that footage right there as something I put out back in 2003. I had this DVD called Infamous Allegiance. It was basically a whole bunch of footage of Queensbridge and just hanging out with me in the studio and shit like that. You know, just giving  the fans a chance to see what we do a regular basis. Basically, I own a legal shotgun in my house. My shit is registered and all that. The place where I bought my gun from asked me if I had kids in the house and I said, yeah. They told me that when my kids get a certain age that I would have to bring them in and teach them how to use a weapon because when you have a weapon in the house and you got kids… The kids will get curious and play with the gun and that’s how mistakes happen. So I told my son when he gets a certain age that I’d teach him how to use it… I told him exactly what I got a gun in the house for… For self defense and for protection, just in case someone tries to run in our house and do something to us. Plus, I’m on tour a lot so my wife is home alone a lot with the kids and she need something to protect herself from things like that. So when my son turned seven I asked him what he wanted and he said he wanted to learn how to shoot the shotgun. I was like, “well cool that’s kind of crazy, but come on.” So  took him to the place that I bought it and they got a gun range in there and they gave us the goggles and earphones and all that and I took him in there and taught him  how to use it. Basically that’s what you’re supposed to do when you have a gun in the house and you’ve got kids. A lot of people was like, “why you got to teach your kids how to shoot guns? Did you do it cause that’s what your father taught you?” Nah… That’s not the reason… What my father did with me was a completely different scenario… He taught me how to shoot a gun n the basement of my Uncle's crib, shooting at a garbage can. I mean, that shit could have ricocheted and killed anyone of us. That was real dangerous and reckless what my father did with me. The situation with my son is completely different and nothing like that.

SHH: You and havoc have put out solo projects since you’ve been signed with G-Unit and recently the Return Of The Mack Mixtape on Koch. How do you feel your situation is over there at Koch considering you’re signed to G-Unit as well?

Prodigy: We were the first people to do deals with Koch. Mobb Deep, Infamous Mobb, Alchemist and we basically made Koch what it is today. All these other rappers that sign to Koch are doing that because of what they saw Mobb Deep do. We was actually the first people to start saying that “Koch is graveyard.” That’s where 50 got it from. When we said that, we was basically just talking about all these rappers is trying to do deals at Koch now when they really can’t find a  deal anywhere else, everybody’s going over to Koch. I mean, it’s kind of corny when you think about it, so that’s where that comes from. We didn’t take that person ally when he (50 Cent) said that because we the ones that put that out there from the beginning.

SHH: When you come home can we expect a new Mobb Deep/G-Unit project?

Prodigy: Definitely… We got one more album on G-Unit. The way we structured  our deal over there we got Mobb Deep on G-Unit for two albums and we got out independent solo albums. It’s definitely a good deal for us over  there at G-Unit because we’re able to have so much flexibility  and do so many things with our solo careers and still have Mobb Deep and G-Unit at the same time and get all the G-Unit perks.

SHH: After your deal is up, do you plan on re-signing to G-Unit or moving on to other things?

Prodigy: You never know what’s really going to happen. I mean, things change every day, so you never know. Maybe we’ll renew the G-Unit deal or maybe we’ll move on to something else. Who knows… We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

SHH: How about the rest of the Mobb Deep crew, The Infamous, Big Noyd and others… Is Havoc going to hold them down while you’re away and continue to put out more projects?

Prodigy: Nah… Basically the main focus right now is H.N.I.C. 2 and we going to take one thing at a time so until I get home that’s the focus. We going to sell that record till it can’t sell no more and when I get back we’ll do another Mobb Deep project and I made two albums just in case I don’t come back on time so I got another album ready to go. That’s what it is, H.N.I.C. 2 is the focus and Havoc is still going to be working on his production for R&B people  and rap people. That’s what he’s going to be working on while I’m gone and he’ll also be touring  my album; him Alchemist, Noyd and everybody are going to be touring H.N.I.C . 2 for me and doing in stores and all that just selling the record… 

SHH: In a recent interview you were quoted saying, “Jay-Z is still Gay-Z.” Can you clarify that statement to the people?

Prodigy: Basically I call him  Gay-Z because that’s just his name to me. From now on that’s all he’ll ever be to me. I was just speaking my mind on that and letting people know how I feel about that. We all know where that stems from already. He was speaking out about the whole East Coast/West Coast thing and I felt like he needed to stay out of grown folks business because it had nothing to do with him. So that’s where all that comes from… Him and I will always be rivals or enemies because basically it’s like  being Yin & Yang. We the positive and negative forces in the universe and that’s just how it is. We’re completely and extreme opposites.

SHH: How did you feel when 50 did the “I Get Money” remix with Jay?

Prodigy: I mean that’s cool. That’s what we do. We try to make hit records that catch the people’s attention and we give the people what they want so it’s all good.

SHH: There’s a huge roaster over at G-Unit. Do you get along with everybody ? Have you collaborated with everybody on the roster now?

Prodigy: Nah… We don’t collaborate with everybody, but we definitely get along Fif, Yayo, Buck, Banks, you know what I mean?  We was on tour with M.O.P. and we brought Ma$e on board, but everybody didn’t do music together just because everybody on the same label. Everybody is cool… There’s no problems and nothing like that.

SHH: You’ve had a long successful career and have collaborated with many people. Who would you say is your favorite person you got to work with?

Prodigy: I would have to say , Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, Snoop, Dr. Dre… There’s  definitely a lot of people to name. I’d definitely be forgetting to name somebody.

SHH: Who haven’t you worked with that you would like to work with in the future?

Prodigy: Just to name a couple of names; there’s Alicia Keys… I like Young Jeezy’s shit, I’d do a  song with that nigga…

SHH: What’s your favorite album in your personal catalogue of music?

Prodigy: It would probably be H.N.I.C. , The Infamous… Something like that…

SHH: What do you feel is the legacy you’ve left on Hip Hop now that you’ll be away from it for 3 ½ years? Where do you see yourself in the pages of Hip Hop history?

Prodigy: I definitely felt we left a crazy legacy. We brought a lot of shit to the table as far as rap music as far as the way are beats sound, as far as our lyrics, as far as the content in our lyrics, as far as the way we dress, as far as our slang (the way we talk).  The way we carry ourselves and the way we’ve done our videos, you know visual shit.  There’s a lot we definitely did a lot that made an impact on the culture.

SHH: So what else do you expect to get into after you get out of prison?

Prodigy: This is basically going to be it. I’m a writer I’m going write scripts, books, songs and that’s about it really. That’s all  I really want to do with myself.

SHH: Is there anyone you’d like to acknowledge before we go?

Prodigy: Yeah man… Shout out to T.I… I hope everything work out with the case and everything. Shout out to that nigga. Shout out to all the fans that have supported  Mobb Deep and Prodigy over the year. I’m definitely leaving you with some dope shit while I’m gone. The album is definitely going to speak for itself in my behalf in my absence.